Many of the dishes will have mushrooms or truffles of some sort. The signature mushroom ketchup sauce (made from repeated straining a grab bag of mushrooms) is especially great.

There will be at least one vegetable garden dish (as a homage to his period in Michel Bras’s kitchen)

Even with the exalted view of Singapore from the 70th floor of the Swissotel, the cooking remains humble in two important ways. Firstly, the chef is not overwhelmed by the luxury ingredients, and he does not hesitate to make sunchokes and beetroot two of the star dishes of his ten-course tasting menu. Secondly, the chef does not warp ingredients with molecular techniques beyond all recognition, his ingredients preserve their natural shape while being cooked.

The Choconuts dessert has surely reached a pinnacle of perfection. It is one of the best chocolate desserts I can remember having.

What I feel can be improved at JAAN:

I felt that my meal this time round could have had better composed dishes. While the individual ingredients were impeccably cooked, the sum was sometimes just equal to the parts. As an example, my last main, the Toriyama beef, was paired with tremendously good Hokkaido creamed corn and grilled corn, but a greasy cornbread somewhat detracted from the clean fat of the beef. Similarly, the amuse of black sesame sponge and smoked eel made little sense to me, and the first main, a “supergroup” of Hokkaido sea urchin, obsiblue prawn, and caviar was neither really synergistic nor intellectually stimulating (I had the same reaction to a very similar dish at Amber in Hong Kong earlier this year – I just felt that luxury ingredients were their own raison d’etre for the dish, and it was on the menu more as to signify luxury than for intrinsic merit)

The dessert program should become more comprehensive. In a sequence of three desserts, having two of them as sorbets (and very run-of-the-mill sorbets at that) is disappointing.

The bread program can also be improved, the best parts of the breads were the charmingly pointed baguette ends (curled up like leprechaun shoes), but the rest of the breads were slightly humdrum.

For refined, well-executed cuisine, JAAN is the first restaurant that comes to my mind. It is easy to forget the Chef Julien is still very young. I wonder how the cuisine at JAAN will develop in the next year or two.

Rating: 17.5/20

Lentil Hummus, cereals tuile

Black sesame sponge, smoked eel (3.5/5)

I didn’t understand this amuse, and why black sesame goes with smoked eel. The flavors were separate, even the form – solid sponge with solid eel, one after the other – maintained separateness

Parmesan tart, tomato fondue

Cantal and walnut crackers

Mushroom tea, cep sabayon (4.5/5)

A very good amuse, a Julien Royer standard. The earthiness from the mushrooms paired as well as ever with the light yet substantial savory egg-foam sabayon. What elevated it (I cannot remember if this is a new touch since my last meal last year) was the toasted buckwheat on top of the sabayon. When the mushroom tea is poured in, the toasted buckwheat maintained its crunchiness, providing a crunchy texture. But it also gave a taste of Christmas to the tea. It is hard to describe the taste of buckwheat, but it is as impactful as nutmeg.

HOKKAIDO SEA URCHIN Obsiblue prawn, Kaluga queen caviar (4.25/5)

Seaweed butter, burnt toast. The obsiblue prawn was made into a jelly this time (did you know? Obsiblue prawn is available all year round).

This was a dish delicious by virtue of its ingredients, but it had little synergy. The mild burst of marine taste from the urchin and obsiblue prawn jelly was over in one or two bites.

Reminiscent of the 2* Amber’s signature dish: “Hokkaido sea urchin in lobster jelly, with cauliflower, caviar, and crispy seaweed”. A popular confection – sea urchin, crustacean jelly and caviar. But while this trio of ingredients may feel decadent by virtue of its ingredients, I don’t quite taste the synergy.

The idea of this dish also seems an unwieldly mashup on two ideas: the refined little supergroup of luxury ingredients in a single bowl (e.g. found at Amber), and the sea urchin – black toast combination(e.g. found at Jean-Georges). I was a bit confused as to whether to eat the dish with a spoon or by using my burnt toast as a dip.

BEETROOT ‘COLLECTION’ Burrata artigiana, honeycombs, radish (4.25/5)

I especially liked the beetroot sorbet, something which captured the earthy simplicity of beetroot, available to any chef.

The scattered bits of honeycomb added marvellous texture and taste to the dish.

WILD ABALONE Grenobloise (3.75/5)

Baby abalone, burgundy truffle, mushroom ketchup.

The baby abalone was quite tough. The best part was the mushroom ketchup (a signature sauce here, straining different mushrooms)

It remained separate. Burgundy truffle only imparts a mild truffle taste to the dish.

Grenobloise (a parsley-brown butter) sauce is listed on the menu, but I have little impression of it.

Very well done crispy scales on the Amadai, (the scales needs first to be scrubbed to face up, and then fried without touching the flesh of the fish). The purple hanaho flower (from the shiso plant) gave a fresh taste to the dish. The miso caramel was delicious

While the wagyu was perfectly cooked, and full of clean beef flavor, unfortunately the cornbread, which was greasy and undisciplined, detracted from the clean oiliness of the wagyu. I had to set aside the cornbread to focus on tastes of the wagyu.

But the creamed corn, and the roasted corn, were full of clean corn flavor. The pickled onionwas an inspired touch.

KYOHO GRAPE Elderflower, lemon, granite

Elderflower pearls, lemon granite

CHOCONUTS ‘TART’ Taste and textures (5/5)

I was very pleased with this dessert. Chocolate in multiple forms: a perfectly formed quenelle of chocolate ice-cream (puzzlingly described to me by the Front-of-House as a “sorbet”), with chocolate foam, chocolate balls, chocolate tuile, on a chocolate tart, with a huge dollop of hot chocolate cream being applied as the coup-de-grace.

Marvelous and classic chocolate dessert, one of the very best I have tried anywhere in the world. Decadent, delicious, and (very quickly) disappeared.

CUCUMBER Mint, milk (3.5/5)

Cucumber sorbet, apple granite, mint, milk meringue on top.

Desserts seem to be a weaker program here at JAAN. Of the 3 dessert courses, only one was a real dessert (as opposed to sorbets, which can be slapped together with very little thought). I hope the kitchen will step up their game on dessert offerings in general. While the Choconuts tart was excellent, a restaurant of this calibre should really have two proper desserts on a 10 course menu.